You know what that means… it’s baking season! Holiday indulgences will be everywhere, tempting you to gobble sugary treats until you’re more stuffed than the turkey (or turducken) on the table.

This recipe might just be your sweet salvation.

This No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake has the familiar flavors of fall for those pumpkin pie lovers at the Thanksgiving table, but is blissfully sugar-free! And it’s so good that I actually prefer it to pumpkin pie (but not to Sugar-Free Gooey Pumpkin Butter Cake… nothing tops that glorious creation!). The fluffy, mousse-like texture of the No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake filling rests atop a sweet and cinnamon-y, “cookie” crumb crust, making for an irresistible flavor combination.

On the advent of Easter, it’s the perfect time for a new beginning. I’ve been baking on and off since January, sharing my Chocolate Cake with a Secret with friends at the local hospital and doctor’s offices. In the midst of pursuing a career in the health professions, I’ve encountered many diabetic patients who are looking to manage their blood sugar while still enjoying tasty treats. These personal encounters, in additional to emails from readers, have been the best inspiration for me to get back to making sugar-free treats!

Wanna know what I’ve learned from making the the beloved black bean chocolate cake hundreds of times over the course of five years? Here are some tips and tricks to make it even more scrumptious!

Slathered with Pumpkin Apple Butter, which tastes like a cross between pumpkin pie and apple pie, these biscuits will satisfy the fiercest of carb cravings.

Sugar-Free Pumpkin Apple Butter make your house smell the best it’s ever smelled, getting you in the mood for pumpkin spice lattes and color changing leaves and knit scarves and all of the other seasonal accoutrements taking over storefronts and Pinterest.

Boy oh boy, it’s good to be back in the kitchen! Back with a little something special for the holidays, of course. It’s sugar-free, dairy-free chocolate candy bark! Isn’t it purdy, lounging on a gold doily?

Doilies are works of art, aren’t they? I see them as small, papery miracles. They make any food visually appealing. They make you feel like you have some sort of “eye” for decorating. They come in classic white, or SHINY!!! I’m a firm believer in their ability to make everything better.

This festive candy is made with a smooth and sweet chocolate base that contains no milk, but all of the richness of traditional milk chocolate bark. This candy bark is one for your Christmas cookbook.

If you haven’t heard yet, the E-Cookbook is up for sale! It’s $5.99 and stuffed full of printable recipes and sugar-free baking tips n’ tricks. To everyone who’s already gotten a copy: Thank you SO much for supporting my experiments in the kitchen! The Kindle and Ipad versions are in the works. You asked, and I shall deliver! Like my Facebook page and follow my Pinterest board for updates.

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Healthier Pop Tarts! Say what?!

It’s the breakfast I used to fantasize about as a little kid, walking hand-in-hand with my mom in the grocery store. She would always lovingly shoo me away from the sugary cereals and snacks, so these pre-packaged frosted hand pies were a rare treat for me.

Until college. Then, anything was game! Ever heard of the freshman 15 30? Yeah, that totally happened to me. Pop Tarts helped make it happen. That’s why I decided to give a Healthy Indulgences make over to Kellogg’s best selling junk food-for-breakfast product. My low carb version of the iconic pastry is gluten-free, no sugar added, and equally yummy!

UPDATE: The giveaway winner for the Bento lunchbox is commenter #55, Suzie. Thanks for participating in the giveaway, everyone!

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Pictured below is my instant strawberry ice cream with rich homemade hot fudge sauce that’s low carb and sugar-free. Both the ice cream and hot fudge can be made paleo, dairy-free, and vegan. You’ll be able to recreate allergen friendly sundaes that are every bit as yummy as those sundaes you’ve enjoyed at ice cream parlors. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the recipes…
With the end of summer comes the beginning-of-school-year scramble! New pens and pencils and binders are carefully arranged in book bags, and text books are purchased begrudgingly by students (hint: Amazon and half.com are your friends). Wardrobes and hairdos and parking permits are revitalized and renewed!

As for me, I’m still stuck in summer mode. Sure, I have my schedule for courses set, my books ordered, and the prospects of new faces and intellectual discovery (shout-out to all my nerds out there!) getting my mind a’buzzing with possibilities. It’s an exciting time, every semester, you know? It’s the thrilling feeling of anticipation that comes with new beginnings, with novelty, with plunging headlong into the unknown.

It all sounds a little dramatic, you say? Well, I have to keep myself excited during my extended undergraduate education, hah! To all you people who knew what you wanted to do with your lives when you were 18 – “congratulations and you suck,” in the immortal words of Marina Keegan, God rest her beautiful soul.

That same feeling—that sense of anticipation—is the one I’ve been getting for the past four years blogging, constantly revising recipes in my messy test kitchen, trying this plate, that camera angle for food photoshoots, and opening my email inbox to new questions that pose new challenges to navigate in the kitchen. The wonderful people (that means YOU) who have given me tips and left helpful comments on the site and Facebook page are the other, more important, reason I’ve kept blogging. Thanks to your encouraging words and donations this website lives on!

After receiving numerous questions from you about sugar-free baking and substitutions, I decided to work on tidying up all the information on this blog into one project. The culmination of this summer’s efforts is the Healthy Indulgences e-cookbook! It’s finally ready, and will be posted for sale on the redesigned website on Monday, August 19th is posted for sale here!

These peanut butter cookies are just like grandma’s, but changed up just a little to boost the protein and reduce the sugar. Oh, and they’re gluten-free. Make this one your new classic peanut butter cookie recipe!

You’re still holding on to that old recipe card, aren’t you? Hmm, well, did I tell you that the dough is made in a food processor, so preparation is a breeze? Yup, it’s true.

Making fresh PB in my Kitchenaid food processor, a Christmas gift I’ve finally gotten around to using. Much more powerful than my smaller food processor, it makes nut butter in minutes. Love!

Did I mention you can grab all of the ingredients for these healthier cookies during your next trip to the grocery store? Also true.

UPDATE: The giveaway winner has been contacted. Thanks for participating, all!This healthy yet decadent spin on the beloved One Minute Muffin is sure to hit the spot when you’re crunched for time and craving the sweet stuff.

Picture this: It’s lunch time, and you’re utterly fatigued after a grueling Monday morning full of meetings with clients/problem sets and paper writing/chasing after the little ones/[choose your own adventure] and your stomach is grumbling.

Baked oatmeal reminds me of college. Those mornings when I had a few minutes to hit up the hippie dippy vegan-friendly eatery on campus for their beloved brunch, I would make beeline for one of their giant portions of aromatic cinnamon-sprinkled carby goodness.

Being home in Florida I no longer have access to those bowls of manna, so I recreated their baked oatmeal with a protein-packed twist. It’s lower in carbs with a creamier, richer mouth feel and an added touch of vanilla to kick up the flavor and make you feel like you’re eating dessert for breakfast. Isn’t that why people eat breakfast in the first place?!

With eggs, sliced almonds, and blended up cottage cheese (shh! you’ll never know it’s in there) this meal will stick with you longer than the couple of hours that oats and sugar would take to digest and leave you ravenous before noon. My favorite way to eat this oatmeal is cold, in bar form, driving to class or munching the first few minutes of lecture.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Healthy Indulgences readers! School’s out and baking season is here. After a semester of new beginnings during which I moved back home to Florida and started my post-baccalaureate coursework, it’s time to get back in the kitchen and go on a baking spree. I’m trading in my calculator for my camera and ditching the library for the kitchen these next few weeks, bringing you holiday sweets and a couple of GIVEAWAYS!

Update: The lemon curd post and Gary Taubes summaries are on hold until the new year. We have many seasonal goodies to make over! Stay tuned…

They’re all the rage, and perfect for an easy, kid-friendly holiday dessert. My version of these cakey cookie sandwiches with a sweet buttercream filling tastes every bit as good as the traditional dessert chock full of flour, sugar, and shortening! Made with ground almonds, a little oat flour, pure unsweetened cocoa powder, and natural sweeteners, you can feel good about indulging in these treats after your holiday feast. Actually, they’re wonderful any time of the year. In fact, you should make these right now. You need fuel to get through all that gift-wrapping and baking, right?!

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“I’ve been following you for years. I’m a T2 diabetic 63 year old male trying to get up to speed on cooking and baking low carb. Thanks to folks like you I’m getting better at it, and have lost about …

Frank Weir, Saline, Michigan

Thanks so much for all your work and experimenting. I have cut out starches and sugars over the last 5 months, and have gotten my 18 year old daughter on board as well, as we are both trying dietary c…

Sheila KrausFredericksburg, TX

Lauren Benning! You’re a hero (heroine) of mine! I have no idea if you know who or what I am, but I started low-carbing in early 2010, at a time when you were doing a lot of blogging and your websit…

Thank you for all the great recipes! I have been a juvenile diabetic for 38 years now, and have used so many of the sugar alcohol sweeteners. But I only recently found out that erythritol is the only …

Linda TurnerCocoa Beach, FL, USA

My husband was diagnosed as diabetic and celiac last spring. Your recipes have helped make the diet adjustment easier for him to live with by making it possible for him to have some of the sweets he l…

Deb DunaganDurango, Colorado, USA

I want to thank you for all the wonderful recipes you have posted on your blog. I love trying them and sharing them with my family. Your blog is amazing and an inspiration for us low-carb clean/health…

Dannielle McguireManalapan, New Jersey, USA

I have tried many of your recipes and have never been disappointed. Of course, I love some more than others, but wow, I think it’s wonderful to have a place to go to find just the right thing for the …

Lona BrownEastlake, Ohio, USA

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